Winning Poems
If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! 2020 Volume 8 – Bubbles
Congratulations to our winners!
Child category | Teen category | Adult category | Previous years' ebooks | This year's ebook | Instructions for downloading |
First place – Child category
Lockdown
I see empty streets, people walking and running, long lines at the supermarket
I hear sirens going past, hard rain hitting the window, Jacinda speaking to NZ
I smell baking, sweet feijoas, fresh air I feel Marble's soft fur, rain pouring on me, the wind blowing on my face
I taste banana cake, apple and blackcurrant juice, crunchy apples in my mouth
I miss my friends, I miss going to the pool, I miss the movies, I miss school and I miss being free.
Alina Chaber-Murray
Second place – Child category
BLOWHOLE
He swims smoothly through the silent sea water
Effortlessly, gliding out front
Big, towering over every other
Up for a breath of air
Whoosh! Gurgle! Spurt! Pop!
Bubble, Bubble, Bubble!
Rushing takes over the stillness
Bubbles emerge, taking their place at the surface
Spluttering as if they are alive
Suddenly, still once more
Oscar Wood
Third place – Child category
Lockdown
Lockdown has been fun with my whanau
I was in Auckland for most of lockdown
My Mum’s birthday
Science experiments
Dancing to Tik Tok
Watching movies
Listening to songs like My Dad the Crocodile Hunter and Million Dreams
Playing with my brother
Washed my hands all the time
Kept my bubble small
Hari T
First place – Teen category
Bubble life
Inside my bubble
I am learning that
I am yearning to get out.
Joe Popham
Second place – Teen category
Piece of bubble gum
A piece of bubble gum has no name or identity
It is part of the pavement now, no plan or purpose
Once a savoir for fresh breath and a distractor from the dull
chewed, popped, spat out forgotten to eternity
The piece of bubble gum is what you step over on your journey home
what you complain about when it ends up on your shoe
A piece of bubble gum will stay until it has slowly faded away.
Olivia Groube
Third place – Teen category
Lockdown!
Beach walks, Sidewalk chalk.
Ongoing fun, Lockdown sun.
Family feuds, Annoying attitudes.
Board game beatings, Competition heating.
Baking galore, Trips to the grocery store.
Time with pets, COVID upsets.
Netflix and Disney Plus, Movie decision fuss.
Facetiming friends, Internet trends.
Weekday school, Weekend’s rule.
Lockdown strife, take me back to normal life!
Ruby Shaw
First place – Adult category
Life
Like the mist rolling over the mountain covering, engulfing, gone
Encasing and consuming us weighing, pulling, down
No longer the flight in the wind floating, moving, on
The last day of light will come rushing, taking, gone
The glimmer through the canopies drawing, guiding, in
Teaching those to seek again shelter, skin, within
The risk is none you haven’t known survived, given, dispel
Pursuit is the only place know, risk, go
Determined is the soul of those flow, exist, sew.
Ashleigh Jane Hutton
Second place – Adult category
Still
shards of blackberry litter the rotting deck and our toddler is desperate to eat the bark at the playground and I can't stop making banana bread while my husband tries to work at the dining table with the power tools boxing him in and each day we religiously wait for dr ashley to grace our screens and we wonder what normal was, exactly, quietly praying that the tomorrow who greets us is a bit more still.
Kaitlyn Wislang
Third place – Adult category
This Time
I stand under the black velvet of the night sky.
Stars shine like guides, leading the way to silence and peace.
I breathe deep on the darkness of the Gorge night and feel myself expand.
This time has been; fresh air, the hawk circling in the wide blue, space and more space, the river roaring, a resting into deep still silence and a coming up anew.
The song of the Tui and the pine breeze from the Macrocarpa in the warm sun.
I find myself quieter, stronger, more sure.
I feel at home in a new knowing and the space around me.
This time has given me a blessing, and now,
All is possible.
Bryony Rogers
ebooks from previous years' competitions
- If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 7 2019 "Together" https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/953703
- If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 6 2018 "Food for Thought- haiku" https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/890616
- If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 5 2017 "Kāpiti-Haiku" https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/744184
- If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 4 2016 "Matariki-winter" https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/655210
- If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 3 2015 "Laugh out loud" https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/571544
- If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 2 2014 “War & Peace” https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/492003
ebook from this year's competition
If You're a Poet, We Want to Know it! Volume 8 2020 "Bubbles" https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1037856
Instructions
Clicking the above links will take you to the Smashwords Library.
If you don’t have an e-reading application installed on your device, follow the instructions below.
It’s easy to read ebooks on your desktop or laptop computer. Simply download an e-reading application as follows:
EPUB
For PCs and Laptops
Download and install the free Adobe Digital Editions from the Adobe website
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For Android devices
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After you install one of the above apps, simply return to your Smashwords Library; click to the book you want to download, then click to download the EPUB file format. Your web browser should ask you if you want to use the app to read immediately, or if you want to download the book to your computer (if you download to your computer, the Desktop is a good location to drop the file so you can find it).